Littleton Board of Health Approves Five-Bedroom Septic System at Bruce Street Property

LITTLETON -- March 26, 2025, Littleton Board of Health unanimously approves a new five-bedroom septic system with a retaining wall at 65 Bruce Street while confronting state ADU rules that could upend local septic-sizing practices. The board voted 4-0 Wednesday to allow engineer John Boardman's Presby alternative system design, which uses a retaining wall to prevent fill from encroaching on a wetland buffer. Health Agent Jim Greffy then briefed the board on state DEP guidance from March seminars indicating that for accessory dwelling units, only the bedroom counts toward septic flow calculations, not other rooms, effectively sidestepping the room-count rules Littleton has long applied to additions. Greffy noted that written DEP guidance, promised weeks earlier, had still not arrived. The meeting closed with a sharp exchange after the board learned that town administration had submitted a backup staffing proposal to the Nashoba Associated Boards of Health without first bringing it to the Board of Health; Chair Matt Waysen said the outcome of the Nashoba board's vote on that proposal, scheduled for the following day, would be placed on the next Board of Health agenda.